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Research in the Pediatric Audiology Lab is focussed on furthering our understanding of the maturation of hearing through investigations of peripheral (external ear to 8th nerve) and central (brainstem to cortex) processing. Although the cochlea has been shown to be adult-like at birth, differences in auditory processing at the level of the brainstem and cortex are evident for infants and young children compared to adults. Susan Small’s research investigates both the estimation of hearing threshold in infants with normal hearing and hearing loss using behavioural measures (e.g., visual reinforcement audiometry) and auditory evoked potentials (e.g., auditory steady-state responses) using both air- and bone conducted stimuli and the mechanisms that underlie the infant-adult differences. Her research focus also includes using cortical event-related potentials to learn more about the effect that auditory experience has on early speech perception abilities in infants with normal hearing (i.e., typical amount of auditory experience with speech and language) and young infants who are identified with hearing loss.

Small, S.A. & Werker, J.F. (2012), Does the ACC have potential as an index of early speech discrimination ability? A preliminary study in four-month-old infants with normal hearing. Ear and Hearing. E-print http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22785572

Small, S.A. 2017. One-day workshop: Early identification of hearing loss in infants and young children using objective electrophysiological measures: Best practices and new research. College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Manitoba (CASLPM) Educational Conference 2017 (April 20 & 21st, 2017).

Small, S.A. 2016. Half-hour featured presentation: Infants, auditory steady-state responses, and clinical practice. In featured session: Back to the Basics: Current Approaches in Infant Hearing Assessment. 7th International Pediatric Audiology Conference: A Sound Foundation through Early Amplification (Atlanta, October 2-5, 2016).